True Penguins Extinct in the Arctic, Scientists Say ‘Fake’ Penguins Live in Antarctica
Polar bears are a species unique to the Arctic, while penguins are unique to the Antarctic. However, what we now know about penguins is not a true penguin, but rather a 'pirated' penguin; the true penguins lived in the Arctic and have gone extinct.
The scientific name for penguins is Macareuce psittacus. Humans first discovered their traces in the Arctic. In the 17th century, European sailors discovered this black and white, large-bodied species when they arrived in the Arctic. Because penguins move slowly on land, many sailors killed large numbers of penguins, using their meat as food and their feathers as warm clothing. Because of the reckless killing of European sailors, the number of penguins in the Arctic decreased sharply.
The Earth experienced an ice age, and the extremely cold climate froze Arctic seawater solid, which prevented penguins from hunting fish, causing a large number of penguins to starve to death. The last two penguins in the Arctic died in 1844, and after that, the Macareuce psittacus species completely disappeared from the Earth.
About half a century later, Europeans discovered bird species similar to Macareuce psittacus when they were in Antarctica. Fortunately, they did not launch another killing, and they still called this species penguin. Therefore, penguins became the species of the Antarctic. Because the Arctic penguins disappeared early, few people knew that the Arctic had once had penguins, and the penguins in Antarctica were not true penguins.
Some people have tried to study whether there are relatives between Arctic and Antarctic penguins, but because the extinction time was too early and the Arctic climate was cold, it is difficult to find the bones of the Arctic penguins. Some biologists also speculate that because both birds lived in extremely cold regions, they evolved into their current appearance according to the environment, it is not ruled out that the two penguins are the same species. But as to why the same bird was scattered across the two poles, we can only know it.
